Beadle's Dime Novels, No. 91: The Lost Cache — page 17: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ALL ABOUT It. 19 . explorations, endeavoring to discover a richer deposit, I chanced to lay open a hole, in which some former digger, perhaps a prisoner like myself, had buried a large amount of gold scales and dust, together with a few large nuggets. I was astonished and bewildered when I examined the héard, and saw what a - mine of wealth had fallen to my lot. There was enough to satisfy the desires of any reasonable man; with what I had gathered, there was a fortune in virgin gold. The former owner, doubtless, was long since dead, so that there was no one to object to my appropriating the whole, and the only question was, how should I ever get it to a place in which it would be useful to me and mine. I made a cache, in which I placed the treasure, and concealed it in such a manner that no mortal could ever find it, unless by the merest accident, or unless he possessed a clue that would guide him directly to the spot. . Thereafter I thought of nothing but how I should find my way back to civilization, so that I might return with a strong force, and claim my gold. My digging operations had been favorable to me, for’ the Indians, having seen me washing mud and sand in the stream, had come to the con- clusion that I was crazy, and thereafter treated me with more kindness. At last, although they would not give me permis- sion to go, they winkede at my escape, which I effected in company with a young Indian who had learned the secret of my gold discoveries. We attempted to cross the mountains in the winter, but were overtaken by a terrible snow-storm, in the course of which we became separated, and I suppose that my companion perished. As for me, I have always wondered how I survived; but I was mercifully preserved, and was found by a party of trappers, who took care of me, and at last brought me to Fort Walla-walla, from which I made my way to the coast, where I found my wife and children, who had long mourned for me as dead. I had saved a small bag of gold-dust, that I had secured about my person, but it was nearly all expended in paying my guides, and in procuring conveyance and provisions from the fort to the coast. I soon saw that it would be useless to attempt to organize a party to go in search of the treasure, for my statements would not have been believed, and, if I had started an expedition, the men who composed it would probably have taken all, and a ~ connicloooks.comn